Minutes:
TRUSTS FOR AFRICAN
SCHOOLS
MINUTES OF MEETING OF
TRUSTEES ON 8 SEPTEMBER 2014 AT LOCKE LORD 201 BISHOPSGATE LONDON
Present: : Lissa
Campell, Guy Cowley, Norma Empringham, Gill
Marshall-Andrews, Luke Morris,
Apologies: Tim Flower, Ben Howland, Steve James, Will
Jones, Tom Marshall-Andrews, Johnnie Morris,
Ben Taylor.
Norma Empringham in the Chair.
Delight in Luke’s recovery was recorded.
1. Minutes of
meeting on 19 May 2014 were agreed.
2. New Secretaries
Peter Barton has now formally taken over from Kimberlee
Elder as secretary of Boka Primary School Trust although he has not yet been
installed as a signatory on the bank account .
We are currently still looking for replacements for Sarah
Wright at Asako and Kim Keppels for Madogo.
3. Mivukoni Secondary School
We have been supporting Mivukoni for 6 years now. For the first 4 years there was a very
positive headteacher and several innovative projects were implemented. The school seemed to be making progress. For the last 2 years however a new HT has
been in post who seems to lack commitment. It has become very difficult to keep
good communication going and many tasks the school promised to undertake have
not been done. The secretary Harriet
Matsaert wishes to stand down in her role.
After discussion it was agreed that Gill will discuss the matter with
the school governors, and with Harriet, with a view to finding a local person
to take over as secretary. The local
trust will then be self sustaining – hopefully with local donations - although
TAS will be open to applications for small sums in the future.
4. School Partnerships
Vince Cable has written an open letter in support
of the partnership between Kimphe Langano Primary School (Ethiopia) and
Heathfield Junior School and urged the granting of visas for teachers from
Kimphe Langano. Some tension has
developed between the Self Help Group which acts as the TAS committee locally
and the school management. Communication
is still poor and we are waiting to see how the matter will be resolved. Until then all funding is on hold.
The planned visit of 3 teachers from Norbury
Manor Business and Entreprise College to Usueni Girls School is expected to
take place in November having been cancelled due to the unrest in May and June.
5. TAS / KWS partnership
KWS have now given their undertaking about
sharing Stephen Kameti’s costs so the Waterloo Foundation funds have been
transferred. Gill will meet the Director
when she visits to review the arrangement.
6. Peter Barton role
Peter’s proposed role offering general curriculum
support to all TAS schools is likely to be postponed as he has just started a
demanding new full time job running a chain of schools in Kenya. He is,
however, happy to become the new Boka secretary and arrangements to install him
as a signatory are in hand.
7. Finance, accounts and Gift Aid
We have £13.5k in the bank to spend on projects
today and with Gift Aid of £14.5k due soon. Funds expected/hoped for in the
next few months are around £45k
8. New Schools
It was agreed that we should start the process of
identifying some new schools as we have been supporting the schools around Kora
for 5/6 years. It was suggested that
Gill contacts the relevant district Education Minister with a view to asking
schools in the area to submit a letter of application for support with a
deadline by the end of the year.
Guidance to schools applying will be given.
9. Inservice training
Guy presented his note on a possible Inservice
training opportunity for headteachers and deputies in secondary schools. Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa ,TESSA,
has produced some Open Educational
Resources to support professional development in
schools and Egerton University in Kenya is a partner in this initiative. It was agreed that professional development
is greatly needed in TAS supported schools and this might be a useful
opportunity. Guy will put together a
proposal for schools for consideration at the next meeting.
10. Proposals for funding
A schedule of projects was presented and funding of £33k
was agreed in principle for 4 projects.
In 2 of these projects funding will be delayed until the outcome of
applications to trusts is known. Further projects to the value of £41k were
identified with funding decisions deferred until the next meeting.
Stephen Kameti had written to trustees to say that the
current drought was causing children to be removed from schools and to ask if
they would consider funding emergency food for primary Standard 8 (examination)
students. It was agreed that it would be
undesirable to fund only a specific group of students. Gill will investigate the situation on her
upcoming visit.
11. Just a Drop
Lissa is still waiting for Stephen to conduct the water
audit she devised which covers a sustainable water supply, sanitation and
handwashing facilities. She will
investigate the acquisition of posters and leaflets for distribution in
schools. Gill will pursue the audit when
she visits later this month.
12. Loldia School Fund request
There was discussion about the Loldia School Fund
proposal that Loldia Primary School should become a TAS supported school. It was finally agreed that TAS would agree to
take on the support of Loldia for a period of 3 years subject to the level of
funding identified in the proposal (£30k over 3 years) being available. Trustees were keen that the school’s
expectations should be managed and that all aspects of TAS procedures at local
level should be observed. Gill will write
to Loldia School Fund trustees and pursue this in Naivasha on her next visit.
13. Next meeting was agreed for 17 or 24
November 2014. Many thanks to
Luke for hosting today’s meeting.
It is hoped that the next meeting might be at Ernst and
Young if convenient for Ben T.
Post meeting
note:
The next
meeting will be on 24 November 2014 – hopefully at Ernst and Young.
